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Financial and Monetary Affairs
Asset and Wealth Management
Hong Kong is well placed as Asia's premier asset and wealth management centre, amid rapid wealth creation in Asia and deepening financial market liberalisation in the Mainland. At the end of 2018, Hong Kong's asset and wealth management business was valued at $23,955 billion, of which 62 per cent came from non-Hong Kong investors1o. At the end of 2019, 1,844 companies were licensed by or registered with the SFC to carry out asset management business locally, up 10 per cent from end-2018. There were 2,165 SFC-authorised unit trusts and mutual funds', of which 763 were domiciled in Hong Kong, up 33 per cent from five years ago.
Chart 4
2,000
Number of Asset Management Companies
No of Companies
1,600
1,844
1,678
1,513
1,200
1,340
1,177
800
400
0
2015
2016
2017
Year
2018
2019
Leveraging Hong Kong's world-class financial infrastructure, the government works with other agencies to develop the asset and wealth management sector. This includes providing a conducive operational, regulatory and tax environment and improved access to other markets to grow a full spectrum of asset and wealth management activities. It also includes diversifying fund structures and expanding the fund distribution network.
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9
Comparative figures are not available due to an extension of the scope of the SFC's annual Assets and Wealth Management Activities Survey, which studies the state of affairs in the local asset and wealth management industry.
The amount excludes SFC-authorised real estate investment trusts and assets held under trusts attributable to non-licensed corporations or registered institutions.
10
Figures are quoted from the Asset and Wealth Management Activities Survey for 2018.
11 These included 105 approved pooled investment funds offered both as retail unit trusts and for MPF purposes.
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